German

Blog Category
0
By Tara Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Austrian German Azerbaijani Basque Bavarian Bengali Bislama Bosnian Breton Bulgarian Burmese Cantonese Catalan Chechen Cherokee Coptic Croatian Czech Danish Dari Dutch English Estonian Faroese Filipino Finnish French Frisian Georgian German Greek Gujarati Hausa Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Ingush Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kazakh Khmer (Cambodian) Korean Kurdish Kyrgyz Lao Latin Latvian Lithuanian Luxembourgish Macedonian Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maltese Manx Maori Marathi Mongolian Nahuatl Nepali Norwegian Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Sanskrit Scots Scottish Serbian Sherpa Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Swahili Swedish Syriac Tajik Tamil Telugu Thai Tibetan Tigrinya Turkish Turkmen Ukrainian Urdu Uyghur Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Wolof Yiddish Yoruba Yucatec Maya Zulu

lexilogos

3.5 
Price: Free

Resource Image

Although Lexilogos seems to have entirely neglected its aesthetics, it holds more than meets the eye. If you click on one of the 130+ languages listed at the bottom of the page, you will find a series of resources to support your studies. This is especially useful for less-studied languages, like Marathi, Basque, and Pashto. Although the lists don’t provide recommendations for applications, they do provide a list of dictionaries, keyboards, news sites, books, and research papers. Additionally, if you switch to the French version of the site, there are even more languages and resources available for you to explore.

Within each language’s page, there is also a dictionary search function. You will notice that more commonly studied languages will have dozens of dictionaries to choose from, while less commonly studied languages may only have one or two.

Overall, Lexilogos is a great option for finding resources for less commonly studied languages. They regularly update their site, so make sure to check back if you don’t find what you’re looking for the first time around.

The current rating is our best estimate. We haven’t had the opportunity yet to more thoroughly evaluate this resource, as we do for our full reviews.

Visit

3
By Brian Spanish Arabic Czech Danish Dutch English French German Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Korean Latin Mandarin Chinese Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Swahili Swedish Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese

Duolingo

Quick Review

4 

Summary:

Duolingo is a super popular free language-learning app. It’s available for desktop as well as mobile and offers over 90 different language courses in over 20 different languages — there are currently 35 languages with English instruction. The Duolingo approach is gamified and easy to use, but the bite-sized lessons don’t offer much in the way of in-depth practice. The Duolingo tag line is “Learn a language in just five minutes a day.”

Quality

It’s easy and fun to use, but some pronunciation and grammar instruction is of low quality, especially for Asian languages.

Thoroughness

The app works well for learning the basics, but there’s little speaking practice and grammar instruction is limited.

Value

It’s a lot of content for free, but you’ll need to use supplementary resources.

Languages: Duolingo offers 35 language courses with English instruction, three of which are constructed languages. Courses are available in most popular languages, including Spanish, French, German, etc.

Price

Duolingo is totally free. Duolingo Plus offers a few additional features and is available for:

$12.99/month (paid monthly)
$6.99/month (12-month subscription)

visit duolingo
(more…)

2
By Brian French Arabic Dutch English Filipino German Greek Hebrew Hindi Irish Italian Japanese Korean Latin Mandarin Chinese Persian Polish Portuguese Russian Spanish Swedish Turkish Vietnamese

Rosetta Stone

Price: Subscriptions start at $35.97 for 3-months

Quick Review

2.7 

Summary:

Rosetta Stone is one of the most well-known resources for learning languages. It takes an immersive approach to teaching and is widely used by corporations and individuals alike. High levels of repetition and an absence of translations or explanations are hallmarks of the course.

A Rosetta Stone course could be most suitable for learners that don’t mind repetitive exercises and prefer to learn from pictures and context rather than translations and explanations. It’s probably not a good option for anyone wanting to significantly improve their speaking or writing skills, or those looking for an engaging course.

Quality

The platform is a bit clunky on desktop, but the material is accurate and presented clearly; lesson mechanics are fairly intuitive.

Thoroughnes

Without much opportunity to build your own sentences, I don’t think you’ll reach a conversational level with any notable speed.

Value

I think there are many more efficient and less expensive ways to learn a language.

Languages

There are courses in 25 different languages — popular ones like Spanish, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, and less-studied languages like Greek, Hebrew, and Swedish.

Price

Subscription Type Subscription Length Total Price* Price Per Month
One Language 3 Months $35.97 $11.99
All Languages 12 Months $179 $14.92
All Languages Lifetime $199 N/A

 

*This is the amount you’ll pay.

Visit Rosetta Stone
(more…)

0
By Tara Arabic Dutch English French German Hebrew Italian Japanese Korean Mandarin Chinese Portuguese Russian Spanish

Polly Lingual

2 
Price: Freemium, yearly subscriptions start at $2.99/mo

Resource Image

Polly Lingual is a phrasebook app and website with a series of basic word lists, flashcards, and memory games. Some of the phrases are pronounced by native speakers, while others use text-to-voice.

Unlike other phrasebook apps that focus on phrases alone, Polly Lingual introduces the basic alphabet in languages with non-romanized scripts. You can quiz yourself on the basic vowels and consonants in Russian, Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, and Arabic. Polly Lingual may be helpful for a quick review of what you’ve already learned, but if you’re keen on learning to write a new script, you may want to check out Write It! or Write Me.

There are also Polly Ambassadors — tutors who will provide short videos of language learning tips throughout the site. You can send them a personal message or hire them as a private tutor.

Overall, Polly Lingual only teaches basic phrases and will probably not help you learn how to construct your own sentences. If you’re just beginning to learn another language, check out French in Action, Red Kalinka (Russian), Chinesefor.us, 90 Day Korean, Portuguese lab, or Pimsleur to get more out of your time. Also, Italki will give you more options for private tutors, if that’s what you’re looking for.

The current rating is our best estimate. We haven’t had the opportunity yet to more thoroughly evaluate this resource, as we do for our full reviews.

Visit

0
By Tara Arabic Dutch English French German Greek Hebrew Italian Japanese Korean Mandarin Chinese Polish Portuguese Russian Sign Language Spanish Turkish

YouGlish

4 
Price: Free

Resource Image

YouGlish is a website that has indexed millions of video clips to put words in context for language learners. After searching for a word in your target language, you will see a YouTube video with subtitles and your target word highlighted in yellow. When you have heard the word, you can continue listening to the video or move on to the next example. You can also slow down the speed of the audio, click on a sentence in the transcript to replay it, or skip backwards 5 seconds to listen again. Sometimes you can watch over 1000 videos with your target word, other times there may only be a couple dozen available.

Some languages also allow you to choose between different regional dialects, such as: French from Canada or France; Chinese from Taiwan or China; and Spanish from Spain or Latin America.

You will need to search for the word in your target language, so you can check out WordReference or Linguee to get a translation. Forvo also provides audio clips of native speaker pronunciation, but with YouGlish, you can practice listening to these words in context.

If you want help with reading the subtitles, you can download Readlang for on-screen translations. The Zhongwen Chrome extension will be better for Chinese learners, as it provides the pronunciation of each character as well as a definition.

The current rating is our best estimate. We haven’t had the opportunity yet to more thoroughly evaluate this resource, as we do for our full reviews.

Visit

0
By Tara French German Italian Japanese Mandarin Chinese Spanish

Conversations - IWTYAL

3.5 
Price: $197

Resource Image

Conversations by I Will Teach You a Language is a downloadable program that uses Comprehensible input (CI) as a strategy to improve your language level. Comprehensible input is when you consume second language material that is just above your current level, which in IWTYAL’s case, is about A2-B1 on the CEFR scale.

The Conversations program includes material of a manageable length with full transcripts and English translations. It is 20 chapters long and follows six characters, two of whom have just moved to the countryside from the big city. You will listen to realistic dialogues between the characters and learn everyday colloquialisms and slang. The characters have a variety of accents within each language, and they speak at a relatively natural speed. The series has the same content in each language, but there are variations based on cultural differences.

IWTYAL probably has good quality materials, but it is quite expensive compared to other CI resources. Intermediate learners can check out innerFrench, Japanese With Noriko, Russian With Max, and Dreaming Spanish for some high-quality, free alternatives. Chinese learners might want to check out Du Chinese and The Chairman’s Bao for graded readers with audio. 

The current rating is our best estimate. We haven’t had the opportunity yet to more thoroughly evaluate this resource, as we do for our full reviews.

Visit

11
By Brian Spanish Albanian Arabic Armenian Cantonese Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Filipino French German Greek Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Korean Lithuanian Mandarin Chinese Norwegian Ojibwe Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Swahili Swedish Thai Turkish Twi Ukrainian Vietnamese

Pimsleur

Price: Subscriptions start at $14.95/mo

Quick Review

4 

Summary:

Pimsleur is one of the most popular and longest-standing resources out there for learning a foreign language. Its courses place a strong emphasis on aural and verbal communication skills, paying less attention to grammar explanations and reading or writing skills. There are over 50 language courses available with Pimsleur, and the bulk of the material is taught with audio lessons.

Quality

The platform is extremely well designed and easy to use. The content seems to be of high quality at all levels.

Thoroughnes

Timely repetition and active practice work well, and lessons build on each other nicely, but the “intermediate fluency in 30 days” claim may be a stretch.

Value

The subscription option provides good value for some, but there may be more efficient ways to learn some languages.

Languages

There are courses in over 50 languages; you’ll find popular ones like German, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese alongside less common languages like Albanian, Finnish, and Haitian Creole.

Price

Subscriptions of either $14.95/month or $19.95/month are available for courses with at least 60 lessons. Prices otherwise range from around $20 to over $500. All purchases come with a 7-day free trial.

Try a free 7-day trial of Pimsleur
(more…)

0
By Tara English French German Spanish

Extr@ (Extra)

4.3 
Price: Free

Resource Image

Extr@ is a beginner French, Spanish, German, and English series that portrays the life of Sam (or Hector, in the English version) arriving in a new country to learn the local language. Programs like Destinos and French in Action will probably help you develop a stronger foundation in your target language than Extr@, but if you are nearing the intermediate level, Extr@ can be an enjoyable watch.

The exaggerated gestures will give context when you don’t understand the dialogue, and the drama will keep you wondering what’s going to happen next. Unfortunately, the characters follow clearly defined gender roles, and some of the script is a bit sexist — make sure you take the cultural information with a grain of salt, as some (or much) of it may be outdated.

Every language’s episodes were filmed in the same apartment with more or less the same script, although the English storyline goes 17 episodes further than the rest. You can find the show with extra comprehension activities with a Yabla subscription. Otherwise, this Youtube channel and this Youtube channel combined have all of the French episodes, this one has most of the English Episodes, and this one has most of the Spanish and German episodes. 

The current rating is our best estimate. We haven’t had the opportunity yet to more thoroughly evaluate this resource, as we do for our full reviews.

Visit

0
By Tara Arabic Basque Bengali Cantonese Catalan Danish Dutch Esperanto Filipino Finnish French Georgian German Greek Gujarati Hebrew Hindi Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Malay Malayalam Mandarin Chinese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Pashto Persian Portuguese Romanian Russian Sinhala Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Zulu

ilovelanguages.org

1.6 
Price: Free

Resource Image

iLoveLanguages seems similar to iLanguages and Learn101 in that every language has the same content and grammar. The eighteen 30-minute beginner ‘lessons’ in every language are essentially lists of phrases and vocabulary words, with audio recordings by native speakers.

The site seems to provide a local teacher for each language, but for some reason, the same teacher offers at least 11 of the languages (including Gaelic, Basque, Filipino, Marathi, and Cantonese). Oddly enough, this teacher also appears in stock photos around the internet. Considering that the website advertises each language class as being taught by a native speaker, perhaps be cautious if you are considering taking a class from this site — maybe try italki or SpanishVIP for private lessons instead.

iLoveLanguages may be helpful if you want to hear native speakers pronounce words in South-Eastern languages, like Marathi, Gujarati, Vietnamese, or Malay. You can compare the pronunciation with the speakers from either iLanguages or Learn 101 (but not both, as they use identical audio files). You could also check out Forvo, which is probably the most extensive pronunciation database on the internet right now. 

The current rating is our best estimate. We haven’t had the opportunity yet to more thoroughly evaluate this resource, as we do for our full reviews.

Visit

0
By Tara Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Aymara Azerbaijani Bambara (Bamanankan) Belarusian Bengali Bislama Bosnian Breton Bulgarian Burmese Cantonese Catalan Cebuano Chechen Chewa (Chichewa) Coptic Cornish Cree Croatian Czech Danish Dari Dutch Dzongkha English Esperanto Estonian Ewe Faroese Filipino Finnish French Frisian Galician Georgian German Greek Greenlandic Guarani Gujarati Haitian Creole Hakka Hausa Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Indonesian Inuktitut Irish Italian Jamaican Creole Japanese Javanese Kannada Kanuri Kazakh Kirundi Korean Kurdish Kyrgyz Lao Latin Latvian Lithuanian Luxembourgish Macedonian Malagasy Malayalam Maltese Mandarin Chinese Manx Maori Marathi Marshallese Mongolian Navajo (Diné bizaad) Nepali Norwegian Occitan Oromo Papiamento Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Quechua Romanian Romansch Russian Samoan Sanskrit Sardinian Scottish Serbian Shona Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Sundanese Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Tibetan Tigrinya Tongan Tsonga (Xitsonga) Tswana Turkish Turkmen Twi Ukrainian Urdu Uyghur Uzbek Venda Vietnamese Welsh Wolof Xhosa Yiddish Yoruba Zulu

Master Any Language

0.2 
Price: Free

Resource Image

Master Any Language has a counterintuitive interface with activities that are frustrating to navigate. Its only perk is that it supports less-studied languages, but even if you do find yourself lacking resources in your target language, this website will probably detract from your learning. You will jump through hoops trying to find the audio recordings by native speakers, so you may want to try ilovelanguages or Learn101 instead; they have low ratings, but they won’t make you lose your motivation to learn altogether.

Most of the activities on Master Any Language are matching games that require you to click on two identical characters, words, or letters: the purpose of this is unclear because it tests neither recall nor recognition. Another activity asks you to form or match nonsensical sequences of words (Ex. Find the sentence identical to “el el el el tchèque tchèque tchèque el el tchèque tchèque”….).

Ultimately, you would probably be better off trying to decipher a page of text with absolutely no guidance than to even attempt to wrap your head around MAL’s activities.

The current rating is our best estimate. We haven’t had the opportunity yet to more thoroughly evaluate this resource, as we do for our full reviews.

Visit

1 2 … 14